*One of only 188 London-Edinburgh Silver Ghosts built*Phenomenal Documentation.*Concours level restoration*Ideal long distance tour car*One of the most original London to Edinburgh Ghost Chassis in existence

THE LONDON TO EDINBURGH SILVER GHOST

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, British gentleman adventurer, aviator, racing driver and astute businessman and Frederick Henry Royce, engineer and innovator, were indeed an indomitable partnership, creating a motoring legend with a reputation for unsurpassed excellence. It says much for the business acumen of Rolls that, despite his inborn desire for things to happen quickly, he tolerated the pedantic and at times frustratingly slow attention to detail of his mechanical genius partner. From this pedantic attention, the Rolls-Royce 40/50hp, 'The Silver Ghost', was to emerge and to earn for itself and the company the accolade "The Best Car in the World".

In production from 1907, the Rolls-Royce 40/50hp, (only later named 'The Silver Ghost'), was powered by a 7,036cc, six-cylinder engine from 1907-1909, later enlarged to 7,428cc. The 40/50hp car passed every test to which it was subjected, whether in service as a formal town carriage in the Capital, sprint racing on Saltburn Sands or competing in the arduous Scottish Trials.

Royce's uncompromising engineering standards demanded only excellence of his staff in Manchester and later Derby and no chassis was delivered until it had been rigorously tested. Rolls-Royce, unlike other contemporary manufacturers, steadfastly refused to build their own coachwork, taking the view that their specialty was engineering excellence and leaving the coachwork to the exclusive group of dedicated coachbuilders who had made the seamless change from carriage manufacture to motor car body building.

Contemporary Rolls-Royce advertising in 1911 featured Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Chassis no.1701and its remarkable London to Edinburgh and return journey that year, describing the feat in the following terms:

"The car.... was a standard Six-Cylinder Rolls-Royce chassis of 40/50hp. The trial... was to demonstrate that the car could travel from London to Edinburgh and back entirely on the top gear, that at the same time it could show an exceptionally economical petrol consumption, and yet attain considerable speed when required. The result...... the car traveled from London to Edinburgh and back on top gear on a petrol consumption of 24.32 miles per gallon, afterwards without alteration or adjustment attaining a speed of 78.26 miles per hour on the Brooklands track."

Some factory wag mischievously noted the factory records for 1701 with the words 'The Sluggard' but clearly nothing could have been further from the truth for here was an up-to-the-minute and very fast model of the 40/50hp car which had already earned for Rolls-Royce the soubriquet – 'The Best Car in the World'.

1701, the car that gave the new model its 'London-to-Edinburgh' name, was just the second chassis built to the new specification with a massive torque tube to carry the propeller shaft, strengthened rear axle casings and, in the case of the first two cars in the series, inverted semi-elliptic rear springs. 1701 carried an elegant light tourer body by Holmes of Derby Ltd., carriage builders since the nineteenth century. With engine compression ratio upgraded, a larger carburetor and a skimpy wind-cheating body, 1701 was later to record a spectacular 101mph over the flying half mile at Brooklands with Edward W. Hives (later to become Chairman of Rolls-Royce) at the wheel. So not only could Rolls-Royce satisfy the market that demanded the most comfortable formal cars built in the best traditional coach-building traditions, but here was a sporting car with few, if any equals, from a very small and exclusive peer group of manufacturers.

All these much-publicized promotional exploits were driven by the similar stunts promoted by March self-publicist S.F.Edge at the helm of Napier who were perhaps Rolls-Royce's most serious rival for the luxury car market. That Rolls-Royce were more effective in their marketing exploits and in their engineering excellence is substantiated by Edge's retirement from Napier in 1912 and the withdrawal of Napier from motor car manufacture in 1924. Arguably the introduction of the new 'London-to-Edinburgh' Silver Ghost was one of the final nails in Napier's coffin.

The London to Edinburgh and return run – some 800 miles travelling north mainly via The Great North Road and returning down the west side of the country – had captured the headlines and Rolls-Royce's subsequent order book, with a raft of new more sporting owner-drivers, undoubtedly put pressure on the manufacturing facilities at Derby. In all some 188 of the 'London-to-Edinburgh' cars were built, the first production models being delivered to the coachbuilders in the Spring of 1912 and the last, no. 2699, in October 1913.

THE MOTORCAR OFFERED

A Brief History of the 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 2380. In the modern mechanical age, few things last for 100 years and still look as good and function as well as when they were new. It takes quality, care and good fortune to age gracefully. All three combined to help the gleaming 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost touring car, known throughout its privileged life simply as 2380, maintain its Class 1 look and feel.

By the spring of 1913 when the order for 2380 was placed, Charles S. Rolls and F. Henry Royce had already built their young company from a start-up in the crowded world of motor car manufacturers, into an international symbol of excellence. While Henry Ford was building Tin Lizzies for the masses, Rolls and Royce were perfecting their business model of assembling vehicles for a clientele that saw great value in bespoke vehicles made with superior materials and craftsmanship. They poured money into research and development and in the early 1900s that meant frequent competitions and road tests. They built a chassis in 1911 designed to beat all comers in the London-to-Edinburgh (L&E) Trial and they did just that. They also showed a remarkable talent for marketing the achievement. Within a month of their victory, they took out full-page advertisements in The Times of London showing the winning Rolls-Royce atop a pyramid of Royal Automobile Club endorsements and boasting, "The Six-Cylinder Rolls-Royce, The Best Car in the World is ON A PLANE BY ITSELF."

Their L&E success propelled the company into the speed and performance market, augmenting their well-established hold the limousine trade and captured the attention of buyers around the world. One of them was a lawyer named Charles G. Walker who bought 2380 on April 13, 1913, according to Rolls-Royce records. He had it delivered to 50 State Street, one of the premier banking and legal office addresses in Boston. The "colonial-style" L&E chassis was modified for export to the United States, India and Australia. Like all L&E cars it featured a larger carburetor, higher compression and gearing. It also had the "colonial style" larger fuel tank and higher road clearance to give it a longer range over rugged roads. Before it was shipped to Boston, 2380 was fitted out with a sleek, narrow body built in England by Barker & Co. After taking delivery of the tourer, Walker promptly disappeared from public records. The shiny new 2380, however, found itself in the good hands of Lucius James Knowles of Worcester and Boston, Massachusetts. Knowles was a scion of a great New England textile fortune founded by his grandfather, Lucius J. Knowles, inventor of the modern loom. The younger Knowles was an Anglophile who spent more than a year honeymooning in England with his wife, Laura. When they returned to the States in 1905, they brought home their newborn son, whom they named Lucius James. By the time Knowles acquired 2380, he was president of Compton & Knowles, then one of largest textile manufacturers in the world. In 1920, while on an extended European business trip, Knowles came down with the flu and died in London at the age of 41.

Two years later, his widow, Laura McGinley Knowles, a socialite and philanthropist, married Col. Pierpont Langley Stackpole. Her travels to family retreats in Winter Park and Palm Beach, Florida and Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts were frequently recorded in the social pages of the day. Through the years, 2380 was used and well maintained by the family.

Here is where the good fortune part of the history of 2380 comes to play. In the summer 1941, while the Knowles' son, Lucius, was in Detroit getting ready for his September wedding to Letitia Barbour, he apparently took a side trip to see Henry Ford's new museum, the Edison Institute. Lucius Knowles grew up with the old Rolls-Royce and drove it frequently just the sheer joy of being behind the wheel. In Ford's museum, he saw a place where he could safely retire the family's beloved conveyance. On July 14, in a hand-written letter to the "Ford Motor Company" he wrote, "I have recently spent some time in the Ford Museum at Dearborn where I was much interested in the exhibits of old Automobiles. I have a Rolls-Royce of the year 1913, which has been in the family for some time and I should be pleased to donate it to the Museum if it should be acceptable. It is a two-seated sport car with a chauffeur's dickey in the back." In conclusion, he wrote, "Rather than have it thrown away, I thought I would inquire if you would accept it and I should send it out at my expense, if you should like to have it." Three days after the letter was written, Henry Ford's general secretary, E.G. Liebold, promptly replied that the museum was interested. "As soon as it arrives, I shall be glad to bring it to Mr. Ford's attention and he will no doubt acknowledge its receipt direct to you." For the next 27 years, it was displayed and maintained by the museum. Knowles timely gift may well have saved 2380 from being swept up in World War II scrap-metal drive.

In the late 1960s, the Ford Museum began refocusing its collection on American-made vehicles and put some of its European collection up for sale. Rolls-Royce aficionado, Dr. Samuel L. Scher, bought 2380 from the museum in 1968 for $7,000, but by that time, the sporty Barker body had been removed and gone missing in the vast collection. Scher outfitted 2380 with a Wilkinson body and returned the car to the Ford Museum where it was admired by its next owner, Millard Newman. Newman was a flamboyant Tampa, Florida, cigar manufacturer known by his fellow Rolls-Royce lovers as "Mr. Silver Ghost." Newman enticed Ford Museum officials into swapping 2380 for a rare 1927 LaSalle they wanted. Newman, who was known for wearing a leather aviator's helmet and goggles while leading cross-country vintage car rallies, regularly drove 2380 and it drew the attention of other Rolls-Royce owners.

Philip A. Peterson, a prominent collector from Worcester, Massachusetts, had admired the car and heard in early 1983 that Newman was thinking of selling one of his Ghosts. Peterson wrote offering to buy one and adding "the '13 L&E tourer would be my preference." By the spring of that year, much to Peterson's delight, Newman agreed to sell him 2380. In a note to himself, Peterson wrote that the car was "the most beautiful thing in the world." He kept detailed records of his new acquisition, including letters, hand-jotted notes and receipts documenting complete mechanical restoration done during watch. His friend and renowned Rolls-Royce mechanic Robert "Bob" Jefferson of Sport Classics Ltd. in Brookfield, Massachusetts, did all of the work. When Jefferson first learned that Peterson had purchased 2380, he wrote him saying it was fitting that "such a part of automobile history" would be driven and not just admired in a museum. "I bet if she could talk, she would be overjoyed to be on the road again."

Nic Moller, a Caribbean hotelier who split his time between Curacao and Upstate New York, was the next steward of 2380, purchasing it in 1989. Moller researched and collected binders full of documents about 2380's history through correspondence with the Ford Museum. He and his wife, Birti, had the car shipped to Europe in 1993 where they drove it in the 80th-anniversary reenactment of the Great Alpine Rally of 1913. The Mollers reported that, "Up and down the mountains she went, with never a sign of overheating or mechanical problems." They logged more than 2,000 miles touring Europe that year, and frequently drove it on major cross-country rallies around America.

In 2004, 2380 was purchased by Dr. Veasey Cullen, Jr., a Pennsylvania dentist whose first experience with a Rolls-Royce was as a boy helping his father restore a 1924 Silver Ghost built for Chicago Tribune Publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick. Cullen says he first saw 2380 in 1998 when Moller and his son, Henrik, drove it on a "Wholly Ghost Tour" of Utah. He says he was intrigued by the history and provenance of the car. "What really attracted me right away was the originality of the car, knowing that it was the real deal," Cullen says. He was also very familiar with the high-quality mechanic work Bob Jefferson had done for Peterson. Cullen has often taken 2380 on long-distance trips. "When you drive it, you can feel the energy; it has a very positive energy. Plus, everywhere you go, it makes people smile." He has continued the tradition of previous owners by showing it at Rolls Royce Owners Club and Concours events around the country.

Over the years, 2380 has won numerous awards, including the Tufts Trophy, the Millard Newman Award and the AACA Foo-Dog Trophy for the Outstanding Rolls-Royce entered in a National Meet. It won First-in-Class for the Brass Class at Concours d'Elegance of America, the St. Michaels Concours d'Elegance, Veteran/Century...First Place at Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance, and the Scher Trophy for Best Silver Ghost at Rolls Royce Owners Club National Rally, first in 1984, and again in 2016. Cullen has just completed a full, frame-up refurbishment of 2380.

The 1913 L&E Tourer, 2380, is road-ready and in prime show condition. It is now being offered for sale for the first time in 13 years.

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